As^pfembe?hia896^ }    American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  505 
THE  COMPOSITION  OF  DIPHTHERIA  ANTITOXIN  SERUM. 
By  Gordon  Sharp. 
The  proteid  bodies  isolated  were  of  the  same  character  as  those  in  normal 
serum.  No  alkaloids  or  characteristic  crystals  could  be  detected,  and  all 
efforts  to  obtain  a  ferment  yielded  only  negative  results.  Albuminose  was  pres- 
ent, but  was  more  abundant  in  samples  which  had  been  kept  for  some  time. 
The  reading  of  papers  and  the  discussions  having  been  brought  to  a  close, 
after  occupying  four  sessions,  the  question  of  next  year's  meeting  was  brought 
up,  and  an  invitation  to  hold  the  Conference  in  Glasgow  in  1897  was  accepted. 
The  following  officers  were  then  elected  for  the  ensuing  year  : 
President,  C.  Symes  ;  Vice-Presidents,  Walter  Hills,  J.  Laidlaw  Ewing,  W. 
F.  Wells  and  R.  McAdam  ;  Treasurer,  John  Moss  ;  Honorary  General  Secre- 
taries, W.  A.  H.  Naylor  and  F.  Ransom  ;  Honorary  L,ocal  Secretary,  J.  A.  Rus- 
sell ;  Executive  Committee,  F.  C.  J.  Bird,  George  Coull,  E.  H.  Farr,  John 
Foster,  Prof.  Greenish,  T.  H.  Wardleworth,  Edmund  White,  J.  C.  Umney  and 
R.  Wright. 
AMERICAN  PHARMACEUTICAL  ASSOCIATION. 
The  forty-fourth  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Associa- 
tion convened  in  Montreal,  Canada,  on  Wednesday,  August  12,  1896.  The 
Windsor  Hotel  was  the  headquarters  of  the  Association,  and,  in  the  ordinary 
of  that  building,  at  3.45  p.m.  on  the  day  mentioned,  President  J.  M.  Good 
called  the  meeting  to  order  in 
FIRST  GKNERAI,  SESSION. 
He  then  introduced  Mr.  R.  W.  Williams,  President  of  the  Pharmaceutical 
Association  of  the  Province  of  Quebec,  and,  afterwards,  Mr.  W.  H.  Chapman, 
President  of  the  Montreal  College  of  Pharmacy.  Both  of  these  gentlemen 
welcomed  the  members  of  the  Association  to  the  metropolis  of  the  Dominion 
in  very  friendly  words. 
The  Chair  then  asked  Prof.  E.  h.  Patch  to  reply  to  the  remarks  of  the  pre- 
vious speakers,  which  he  did  in  an  amusing  and  interesting  address.  After 
First  Vice-President  C.  E.  Dohme  had  been  called  to  the  chair,  the  President 
read  his  address.    Among  other  things  in  the  course  of  his  remarks,  he  said  : 
•  Probably  the  most  important  special  committee  working  during  the  past  year  was  the 
one  appointed  on  weights  and  measures,  with  instructions  to  co-operate  with  the  American 
Metrological  Society  and  other  societies  in  petitioning  Congress  to  pass  a  law  making  the  use 
of  the  metric  system  compulsory  at  an  early  date,  in  all  transactions  where  weights  or  meas- 
ures or  both  are  used.  That  they  almost  succeeded  is  a  fact  probably  well  known  to  all  of 
you.  That  they  did  not  succeed  absolutely  is  no  cause  for  discouragement.  The  wonder  is 
that  they  did  so  well,  when  we  reflect  what  it  means  to  a  nation  to  change  a  system  of  weights 
and  measures — a  system  which  is  absolutely  without  system,  but  which,  by  education  and 
use,  has  become  a  part  of  ourselves.  All  classes  are  affected.  Fully  a  generation  of  people 
have  grown  from  childhood  to  maturity  in  America  since  the  active  agitation  of  this  subject 
began.  It  must  be  persistently  pressed  by  scientific  organizations,  and  more  thoroughly 
taught  in  all  our  schools,  before  the  people  will  be  ready  to  accept  it  in  measuring  values  in  the 
daily  transactions  of  life.  Every  family  has  the  weights  used  in  the  vicinity  and  recognized 
by  the  custom  of  the  place.  To  change  all  this  at  once  is  to  affect  the  well-being  of  every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  the  community.  Those  opposed  to  the  change  in  England  are 
much  gratified  at  having  so  able  an  ally  as  Herbert  Spencer.    One  does  not  like  to  see  so 
